The turnout at the 111th Annual U.S. Open in Irvine has reached 470 players, and the number of Grandmaster entries increased dramatically as the 4-day schedule began. Four hundred seventy players (plus five re-entries) are now competing.

GMs Varuzhan Akobian (his first appearance in a Southern California Grand prix tournament in three years), Timur Gareyev (College Tournament of Champions winner earlier in the week), Alex Shabalov, and Dmitry Gurevich joined Mark Paragua (6-day) and Alejandro Ramirez, Melikset Khachiyan, and Larry Kaufman (traditional schedule) for a total of eight GMs.